Pompey vs Manchester City Preview

By Jim BonnerLast updated : 10 November 2007

Viewed :

Sven's men visit Fratton Park on Sunday afternoon in what is a massive game for both teams, even at this stage of the season. Should we win, we'll jump City in the league but lose and we'll be 6 points behind them and that will be a hard gap to close.

Strangely, our home form hasn't been as good as our away form and we've hit a bit of a blip, having not won our last two home games. Maybe it's something to do with the system we play at home where we rely on teams coming to attack us, and that's something that visiting teams don't do often at Fratton Park.

Whether City will look to attack or follow West Ham's lead and do a containment job on us, who knows? There'll be a boost for them as Micah Richards should return to the side although Michael Johnson is still out.

Papa Bouba Diop is suspended for the game after picking up four yellow cards when playing for us and one for Fulham. Pedro Mendes is expected to take his place and after his previous exploits against City, who would bet against him getting involved once again?

Harry has said that we should be wary of Elano, as the Brazillian international has been superb for City so far this season. City are likely to play their 4-4-1-1 system and it'll be interesting to see how that formation plays against ours.

There are also a few other potential flashpoints in the build up to this game. Sylvain Distin will be playing against his former club whilst Geovanni joined City when on trial with us. John Utaka almost joined our opponents too, but I expect that Pedro will make the headlines once again.

This will be one of our toughest games of the season and with both teams flying high in the league, it could be a cracker.

Pedro Mendes made his mark against City once again with another superb volley from range. City equalised in the second half thanks to Bernardo Corradi's header but just when it looked like we might draw, Kanu slotted in the winner.